Badgers

[Kidds]

I used to be involved with a large, soft fruit growing enterprise, which situated in a predominantly dairying area, (and a fairly bad Tb one too). The packhouse was regulated and "farm assured" to an almost ridiculous degree, to the point that there was a designated person who had to record how many flies the fly zapper caught daily!
However,there was no mention of the numbers of Badgers pi**ing and sneezing all over the Strawberries out in the fields.
Apparently the advice on the pack to wash the fruit before eating, absolved the producer and the retailer.

I scrapped my field of strawberries because of badgers, not a massive field at about a third of an acre.
I guess I could have tried to fence them but that's not cheap and may not have worked . My thinking was that if I wasn't prepared to eat them myself I wasn't going to try and sell them to someone else.
Maiden crop, good health and would have cropped well next year rather than some tired old patch on it's last legs.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

whilst that may or may not be the case, if you put my theory to the 'average man on the street' they would I am sure walk away scratching their heads trying to fathom why they are still protected.

I think the TB, however relevant is a red hearing and the bee and hedgehog team should be rallying for a review on which species in the UK should become protected and if any should be knocked of the list.

that would solve all of these problems easily.

 

[david 73]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34637968

Parts of London have higher rates of tuberculosis than Rwanda or Iraq, a report from the London Assembly says.

A third of London's boroughs suffer from high rates of TB, with more than 40 incidents per 100,000 people.

Some wards in Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hounslow and Newham have rates of more than 150 per 100,000.

The report said prisoners, homeless people, people with substance abuse issues, refugees and migrants were particularly at risk.

Although the BCG vaccination against TB is recommended for all newborn babies in London, eight of the 24 boroughs do not offer it.

The rate of infection among UK-born Londoners has risen, while among the non-UK-born it has fallen - and the report said it would be wrong to assume TB was a disease of migrants.

Prevention 'poor'
The borough with the highest rate per 100,000 people was Newham, with 107 cases. Figures for 2013 from the World Health Organisation showed in Rwanda the figure was 69, while in Iraq it was 45.

Algeria and Guatemala also had a lower incidence than the capital, the reports points out.

The average rate per 100,000 in the UK as a whole was 13.

A few strains of the disease are now resistant to antibiotic treatment and the cost of treating them can be as high as £500,000 per patient.

Newham in East London is the area where most of the people are affected medically by chronic air pollution. They are overweight, diabetic and asthmatic and there are no badgers seen around Newham.

 

[Midnight plough boy]

whilst that may or may not be the case, if you put my theory to the 'average man on the street' they would I am sure walk away scratching their heads trying to fathom why they are still protected.

I think the TB, however relevant is a red hearing and the bee and hedgehog team should be rallying for a review on which species in the UK should become protected and if any should be knocked of the list.

that would solve all of these problems easily.

Good idea getting the hedgehog brigade on side, I think some of them would really support action against badgers, like this guy:

 

[matthew]

Oh the irony. ^^^^^

 

[Muck Spreader]

I am sure Brian May recognises the need for an abundant supply of food for his Badgers.

 

[holywell farmer]

Anyone hear Jeremy Whine today? 13 badger sets are undermining flood defences around a town in Lincolnshire. Encouraging them to move hasn't worked so now they want a cull. Amazing the amount of Bryan May supporters would rather have the town flood than kill the cuddly badgers

People get sound wound up over these animals, badgers are not in short numbers shooting a few won't wipe them off the earth

 

[General-Lee]

People get sound wound up over these animals, badgers are not in short numbers shooting a few won't wipe them off the earth

Best post you've ever made!!

 

[david 73]

People get sound wound up over these animals, badgers are not in short numbers shooting a few won't wipe them off the earth

The big point is that campaigners have no proper evidence that badgers cause bovine TB. It s an illness dormant in us all including our wildlife and farm livestock and occurs following loss of immunity.

 

[Filthyfarmer]

A combination of very seriously cruel and damaging badger baiting videos from the '80s and '90s and a stunningly successful PR campaign by the antis/animal rights/'conservationists'. The selection of it as the symbol of the various wildlife trusts has successfully turned it into the British Panda.

Spot on post

Badgers have never been an endangered species, the law has just made it easier for scum to find them and dig them as before. Only difference is that most of us that live in the countryside used to feel proud to look after the "reasonable" amount of sets on the farm, not a set to every damn hedgerow!!

 

[DrWazzock]

If the BBC minded it's own business and if urban folk minded their own business, badgers would have continued to be controlled in the countryside as they were for hundreds of years. Every time somebody mentions controlling badgers, the BBC are in stirring s**t.

I deeply resent urban people trying to dictate what we do in the countryside. It's none of their business. I don't care what urban do in cities, nor do I tell them what to do there.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Spot on post

Badgers have never been an endangered species, the law has just made it easier for scum to find them and dig them as before. Only difference is that most of us that live in the countryside used to feel proud to look after the "reasonable" amount of sets on the farm, not a set to every damn hedgerow!!

There is nothing wrong with badger digging when it is correctly and humanely carried out. I go to Europe most years to legally dig badgers with my terriers.

 

[david 73]

If the BBC minded it's own business and if urban folk minded their own business, badgers would have continued to be controlled in the countryside as they were for hundreds of years. Every time somebody mentions controlling badgers, the BBC are in stirring s**t.

I deeply resent urban people trying to dictate what we do in the countryside. It's none of their business. I don't care what urban do in cities, nor do I tell them what to do there.

Most of the air pollution publicised by the BBC and others is caused within towns and cities where the urban people reside. They use cars, vans, buses, lorries, gas cookers, gas boilers, gas fires and highly destructive jet engines to cause air to become poisoned globally. This impacts upon the health of people and animals everywhere and farmers are not exempted. Farmers actually spend most of their time on tasks that do not actually cause much air pollution.
Urban people are very often involved with campaigns against the pollution of air because they care about everybody. Some even end up in jail for protesting against air industry expansion. We all need such people urban or not.

www.a-new-shape.co.uk

 

[DrWazzock]

Most of the air pollution publicised by the BBC and others is caused within towns and cities where the urban people reside. They use cars, vans, buses, lorries, gas cookers, gas boilers, gas fires and highly destructive jet engines to cause air to become poisoned globally. This impacts upon the health of people and animals everywhere and farmers are not exempted. Farmers actually spend most of their time on tasks that do not actually cause much air pollution.
Urban people are very often involved with campaigns against the pollution of air because they care about everybody. Some even end up in jail for protesting against air industry expansion. We all need such people urban or not.

www.a-new-shape.co.uk

Well David, can you see that we kill sheep, cattle, rabbits, pheasants etc in the countryside? Yet the cycle of life an death continues perpetually. Without us the cattle and sheep would most probably be extinct. We are their keepers as we have been for thousands of years. SO why the problem with badger control. nobody wants to see them eliminated. nobody is really that sadisitc that we want to see them die a horrible death. But some measure of control is surely essential and part of the natural way of things in rural areas.

But sentimentalism rules. YOu in urban areas kill and poison rats by the hundreds of thousands with impunity but for some reason you insist that we rural dwellers have to put up with overpopulation by badgers. They are some sort of sacred animal to urban dwellers but to us they are an over size rat. Control is necessary, but never elimination. We all die eventually. Nature does not kill humanely. It kills agonisingly. By maggot, disease, or slow starvation. Most often a bullet is kinder, but urban dwellers never rationalise that. They don't think.

 

[matthew]

The big point is that campaigners have no proper evidence that badgers cause bovine TB.

You think??

It s an illness dormant in us all including our wildlife and farm livestock and occurs following loss of immunity.

Nope.
Mycobacteria such as m.bovis have to be in a cluster called 'colony forming units' to establish in another area. Exposure to these clusters is screened for using the Manteaux test or Heaf test in humans. a comparative intrdermal skin test in cattle.. Normally, a person (or cow) who has not met the bacteria will mount no response at all.
If they have met it, then a lump forms. A reaction to the tuberculin antigen.
For human being that means Xrays and sputum / blood tests.
Cattle are shot.
Badgers are released back into the wild.
Up to 50 per cent of UK badgers are now infected with zoonotic tuberculosis.

Go figure.

 

[Water Wheel]

Came to this DEFRA consultation which ends Nov 8

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/bovine-tb-controlling-bovine-tb-in-non-bovine-animals

Open consultation

Bovine TB: controlling bovine TB in non-bovine animals
AS you might guess captive badgers are not included, suggest any badger captive long enough to requiring feeding should be included in the proposed new regs.

 

[Exfarmer]

The big point is that campaigners have no proper evidence that badgers cause bovine TB. It s an illness dormant in us all including our wildlife and farm livestock and occurs following loss of immunity.

If TB was dormant in us all , we would all fail a tb test , which only reveals exposure not infection.
You are incredibly ignorant, but do not worry, many more, so called intelligent people than you, are far more stupid

 

[former farmer]

The big point is that campaigners have no proper evidence that badgers cause bovine TB. It s an illness dormant in us all including our wildlife and farm livestock and occurs following loss of immunity.

Can I refer you to what a multitude of vets were saying ten, yes ten, years ago about the infection of cattle from badgers.
It is a fairly lenghty read but well worth your time.

http://www.bovinetb.info/docs/tuberculosis-tracing-the-dilemma.pdf

 

[david 73]

Can I refer you to what a multitude of vets were saying ten, yes ten, years ago about the infection of cattle from badgers.
It is a fairly lenghty read but well worth your time.

http://www.bovinetb.info/docs/tuberculosis-tracing-the-dilemma.pdf

I spent some time reading the linked article and concluded that badgers are probably responsible for BTB among farm livestock. With the estimated population of badgers being in excess of half-a-million around ten-years ago, I would suggest that more than half of them should be culled as a means of reducing the associated costs to farmers and the taxpayer of TB in cattle.,

 

[Skimmer]

Why are badgers actually protected.